


Heartbeat

by Kit



Category: Twelve Houses - Sharon Shinn
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-20
Updated: 2011-01-20
Packaged: 2017-10-14 22:02:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/153918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kit/pseuds/Kit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Princess Amalie has been moved to a different room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heartbeat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [seori](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seori/gifts).



**Heartbeat**

She is seven. Solemn and seven, and Mama still plays about the edges of her mirror like a secret friend. If she looks at herself and squints her eyes, then her own long, heavy braid could be Pella’s, hanging over Amalie’s shoulder as she kisses the top of her head. In the mirror, eyes so small as to not see the colour of them, every movement might be Mama, rustling in the courtyard garden, coming in to say, “Not in bed yet, little mockingbird? Hurry, or the sun will catch up to you!”

But there is no courtyard, now. Her father-the-king (“Never forget, my heart, your papa is also the King. We’ll tell him about the kittens later”) moved her room to a close place, a heart-place in the Palace, where the footsteps of all the world can be heard beat-beat-beating on every side. The windows are high. Her walls are pink and grape-green and gold, in gleaming stripes that she follows by candlelight. Over and over, until they break free of their sticky painted home and loop around in her mind, to the noise of all the people.

“Baryn needs to keep you safe, and so do I.” This from Valri, so beautiful and so serious, who does not dare call her mockingbird. (“Pella!” Choked, tearful words to a fading woman, words Amalie was not supposed to hear, the Lirrens strange and wild against her skin, in her frightened mouth. “You risk so much with a _pet name_?”

Amalie does not remember Mama’s reply. They had gone home the next day, Valri’s hair short and sharp, and all of them silent.)

“We keep you safe in this room, close to everyone. And the library. Let’s find another book to read.”

Amalie does not tell Valri she cannot sleep in this room, with its heartbeat. It is louder than her own, and she is used to birds. To the quiet Pella made, that never seemed lonely even after the city was a No-place to both of them, even with Riders near. “You are overcautious, Baryn,” Mama had said, or something like it. What Amalie remembers is the kiss she had given him, even so , and the way he had held her and said, “I shall not lose you, my friend.”

“Can you be my friend?” This to Valri, who stood with her back straight against the door, her lip caught in her teeth.

“We are all that the other has,” she had said, which was not an answer to that question.

Amalie is seven. Solemn and seven, as she turns from the mirror and puts herself to bed.


End file.
